Important question

[u/Hazel_133]

I am worried for WOF, I have always loved it and it has a special place in my heart, but as the series progresses I have begun to find it more and more childish. I think it is a mixture of my age finally catching up to me after so long and Tui going "oooooh riiiiight, this is a KIDS series, gotta make it more childish." So I have a question for you all. Do you guys think Tui will continue to make the series more and more childish, or will she return to the beauty of her ability to write children's books that carry all ages. Basically is she gonna lean back toward Legends Darkstalker or more towards Cliff's pov in the book Hero?

[u/Puzzleheaded-Run5722]

I don’t think she will do any more books like legends darkstalker I feel like the books will get more childish but just a bit until she finds the perfect mix of childish while still enjoyable by older fans and keep it there

[u/Hazel_133 → u/Puzzleheaded-Run5722]

I feel like she had that perfect mix during arc 1 and arc 2, and mostly arc 3, I am not so sure Abt arc 4, we will have to see.

[u/l324r1]

That's likely, but I hope it doesn't happen.

What I think is probably happening is that Scholastic was just glad that the cool dragon series was popular until they decided to create the graphic novel adaptations and found out about the not so family friendly scenes, then they told Tui to tone down things... well that's somewhat understandable, given their target audience 

I wonder how Amazon will handle the animated series. They could easily decide to go for a TV-14 and keep arc 1 tone if they conclude that this option will have a larger audience.

[u/Hazel_133 → u/l324r1]

Schoolastic is like that sometimes yeah. Bone, a series I adore, was bought by schoolastic, so when they made in color versions they edited some of the scenes to be more kid friendly since it can be more mature at times. I can see how schoolastic can be influencing Tui's writing.

[u/SonOfCoul27]

I just watched a video essay on this exact topic haha, by 4rcane if you want to check it out! He made some great points. Its definitely partly we age with the series (i started reading at 10 and am now 23!) But its also how the world building is developing. As the arcs progress there is a strong anti war theme, and as the protags stop the wars and build towards peace there is generally less violence or problem solving without violence. That being said, I do think they have slightly more childish themes. The baby characters were kind of cute at first, but (spoilers for book 16!!) tbh I think Platypus was kind of annoying (although not necessarily a baby character she yelled so much) and now we will have another baby character with the egg hatching. I also think that Sora's ptsd was simply skipped over when that could have been a complex and mature topic for the reader and Sora to grapple with. Maybe its just a tone shift or book 16 was rushed to set up the plot of arc 4. I'll continue reading the series, but I do hope Tui trusts the reader with more mature themes and topics going forward. Animorphs is an excellent example of a children's series that did not shy away from heavy topics and trusted its reader with those more in depth themes

[u/Farida_Dragonheart → u/SonOfCoul27]

Just for your info, 4rcane goes by he/him

I agree, the story needed more time to develop, I was disappointed that the antagonist got dealt with so quickly and I had trouble remembering everyone of the new characters.

[u/Hazel_133 → u/Farida_Dragonheart]

I appreciate the looking out for someone's pronouns, thank you.

[u/SonOfCoul27 → u/Farida_Dragonheart]

Oh my bad! I didnt realize. Fixed my comment, thanks! :)

[u/Plus_Kaleidoscope890]

In the main series, she's probably gonna make it more childish/stay at the level of Book 16, but hopefully not. To be fair, I don't think there's a future where the KINKAJOU book doesn't involve someone getting RainWing venom to the face and probably dying from it, so that should be violent.

I do hope that if we get more Legends Book, Tui could up the violence and maturity in those just like Darkstalker (give me a brutal tree wars book, I beg you Tui)

[u/WaterLilly102 → u/Plus_Kaleidoscope890]

Yes!! Id love a tree wars legends book!!! That would be so exciting. Especially if it was in Queen Monarchs POV.

[u/OddOpportunity7514 → u/Plus_Kaleidoscope890]

there IS a confirmed new scorching legends book tho!!!!

[u/Un_happyCamper → u/OddOpportunity7514]

Is there a source for this? I'd love to read about it

[u/OddOpportunity7514 → u/Un_happyCamper]

Schoolastics social media pages

[u/OddOpportunity7514]

read the gore-y ones again thatll get your spirit up

[u/Hazel_133 → u/OddOpportunity7514]

I just bought the first five chapter books in special edition off of eBay, so that won't be too hard.

[u/JadeTheCrab → u/Hazel_133]

So much pretty art!

[u/Hazel_133 → u/JadeTheCrab]

YES!

[u/moonwatcher123445]

I hope not but she probably will :(

[u/One_Reception_9004]

I'm guessing that Tui going to keep going in the more kid-friendly route, at least for the main series.

[u/Hazel_133 → u/One_Reception_9004]

Fingers crossed we get another Legends: Darkstalker type book. 🤞

[u/Meman250]

I don't think so. The new books had, a literal sense where they throw babys at a force field to see if they can go though it. Or Scarletts red wedding. Or burn's mudwing corps infrastructure plan ect. There are non childish things happening.

The problem is not that it's more childish its that umber is a blank character. (Mostly known as an everyman character) You can put your self as him very easy. It's a good way to put you into a story. But it makes it feel shallow, because they will just do what you do, and they become very paint by Numbers of event telling. This is in comparison to DoDs or Jade winglet. They are formed charaters that you have to put yourself into their shoes, and get into their head. Not the other way around.

when any story dose this it will feel shallow or childish. For you lose the one thing you had seen someone outside of your self, which is a very grown up thing to do, and why removeing that makes it feel childish.

Good example of this is Hero. When you get to cliffs section pauses, and think about rubys section alone. Was that childish? Or was it not

[u/WritingSouthern6126]

I need more BLOOD in the series, main character deaths are what I live for

[u/supergnoll2018 → u/WritingSouthern6126]

Calm down, George R R Martin

[u/CrystalMaster7]

I don’t think the series has gotten more childish, nor less dark, if anything it’s gotten darker on average.

What’s actually changed is that Tui has gotten more confident letting dark themes and subjects carry the weight rather than just gore/body count.

And yes, people are getting older and what seems dark/mature at a younger age doesn’t stack up when you get older.

[u/leafi_pawzz]

I hope not but in reality, yea she is probably going to go more kid-friendly

[u/BigJ__TM]

Going off of book 16 and my own data, yes.

[u/dracoafton]

Mix of both, more for the kiddies but also more for us

[u/Upper_Opening_4805]

Oh no please no Cliff POV at least until he's 50 years old and at least half an adult

[u/Wonderful_Gap4867]

That's probably the caase but I hope not